Notebook standby, on w/monitor off, or off/hibernate when not using overnight or periods more than a couple few hours.

If only considering the longevity of the notebook (hard drive aside), what is better?

I typically use my notebook at least 12 hours a day.

It's on mains power and the battery is out.

I'm not considering power consumption, boot waiting times, or anything else. Just the longevity of the MB, RAM, integrated and discrete GPUs, and CPU.


For the heck of it, I'm putting a poll here just to see how it turns out. But some replies would be great. Thanks much!

 

If you use it everyday, its slightly better for your components to just keep it on, but its not better for your power bill.

 

do hibernate... save power but personally , i just turn everything off.

 

I just use standby, my computer has got to the point that booting up again is an unpleasant experience, instant on was always a nice thing to have anyway. The power demands are basically the same as having it off, if you left it for a day on standby then it would probably only lose 4% battery or something trivial like that.

 

Again, not worried about power consumption. And as funky monk mentioned, the power use on standby is minimal, but really that's not a factor in my question. Neither are boot times.

I'm talking about longevity of components. On, standby, or off/hibernate.

Nike7, do you mean on on or standby on. Does it make a difference in longevity between on on and standby on, do you think? Because most of the components cool down and reheat anyways when using standby on and going back to on on state.

Thanks. Any other replies appreciated. I've researched this a bit, but can't find much of an answer because everyone delves into the power consumption, boot times, etc.. .issues which I'm not concerned with for my purposes.

 

Strictly talking longetivity of the components: Keeping the circuits powered (on on) continously will stress them the least.

As you've mentioned; shutting down, sleep and hibernate all exact a power on/off cycle from the components which does decrease their lifespan.

For the longest lifespan of electrical components in order of importance:

1) Use a line conditioner that maintains and regulates voltage and delivers clean and stable power to the components.

2) Keep the components as cool as possible with the least variation in temperatures.

3) Cycle the components as little as possible (on/off cycles); in other words, keep them on.

4) Use them at less than 67% of their nominal maximums (mostly for cpu's).

5) When a 'reboot' is required - a reboot/restart is preferred to a full shutdown and then starting up again.


Hope some of this helps.

 

Longevity of the components is irrelevant, as under all except the most extreme conditions, the lifetime of the components will exceed at least a decade. CPU's, RAM, and motherboards don't just go belly-up when they get old unless they were defective from the factory, and 99% aren't. Changing your usage patterns is not going to do anything and you have nothing to worry about anyway.

 

Trottel,

I beg to differ.

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...437686-dell-m70-throttles-cpu-t0-213-mhz.html


As the above link shows, components do go 'belly up' at least enough to make the system unusable.

Just because todays systems are built/used way below their maximum nominal thresholds, doesn't mean that they are bullet proof. They just seem like they are. (To average/most users).

 

You're right, that was a pretty strong statement.
But we do know a few things:
1. The vast majority of systems will never have a cpu, ram, motherboard, or gpu that will go bad. Any of these things going bad on there own is extremely rare. Physical damage and ESD are the primary methods that these are damaged, but unless you open it up and are not careful or you drop the laptop or run it over with a car, physical damage and ESD are extremely unlikely.
2. Of those that do, most can be attributed to a known manufacturing defect. For example, the nvidia gpu problem affecting some 8 and 9 series gpus was due to improper soldering during manufacturing, over time allowing the joints to come apart. Also the capacitor issue plaguing a slew of motherboards and even some power supplies that peaked around 7-8 years ago was due to improper composition of the electrolyte at a single factory. Outside of instances where there are mass failures of the same part due to a defect, which are thankfully rare, individual random failure of components is even more rare.
3. There is no data that correlates failure with normal usage. Anything more is merely apocryphal or anecdotal.

Taking these three things into account, it is best to not waste time worrying about whether shutting down, putting to sleep, or keeping on is the best method for preserving the longevity of a computer.